Gus Tonsay.

I grew up in Orange County and I still live in California. I have spent the last thirteen years in the financial industry, and almost all of that time has been spent on one question: how do you take the money someone spent a career building and turn it into income they will not outlive.

Along the way I got licensed on both sides of the business. I hold insurance licenses through the Department of Insurance, and I am registered with FINRA as a Representative and a Principal. That combination is less common than you would think, and it is the single most useful thing about how I work. An insurance-only agent is not permitted to discuss variable annuities with you. A securities-only advisor often has no meaningful access to the fixed and indexed side. I can sit down and walk you through all three categories, from a wide range of carriers, and tell you where the real differences are.

That breadth matters more than people expect. Annuity contracts are not interchangeable. Two products that look nearly identical in a brochure can differ enormously in cost, in how income is actually calculated, and in what your family receives if you die early. When someone can only show you three contracts, you get one of those three. I would rather show you the range and be honest about the trade-offs, including the times when the right answer is to change nothing at all.

When I am not working I travel as much as I can manage. I am reachable after a contract is issued, not just before, and I think that is a low bar that a lot of this industry still manages to trip over.